Hi and a Happy Thanksgiving to everyone out there from Canada!
Today, the second Monday of October is the Thanksgiving holiday, and everyone is closed to celebrate.
Thanks is given at the close of the Harvest season for the bounty of crops. If you heard of the term, the Thanksgiving Classic, no it is nothing to do with some old fashioned way of eating a turkey. This is one of the biggest football events in Canada, and it is played and televised nationally on Thanksgiving day. So, today, many Canadian families will cook and eat a big turkey dinner, with mashed potatoes, peas, corn and blueberry pie. Many will watch the football game on t.v and celebrate the day with other family members and friends.
The day, the second Monday in October was proclaimed to be the official day of Thanks by the Canadian parliament on January 31t, 1957.
Many stores are selling their turkeys at half price today, and all pie fillings, pie crusts etc are all selling at bargain prices. After tomorrow, no one is going to need these items and I wonder what the store does with all the left over stocks!!
What are most Indian families doing today? Probably what we are doing.......household chores, cooking for the week, taking the kids out for a meal....of their choice.......and catching up on emails to family and friends in India!!
Now, I mentioned the Turkey......here is the crazy.............Halloween!!
You should see Walmart. Went there yesterday, and it looks like half the store is just set up for the wonderful marketing magic of Halloween. From decorations like paper streamers to plastic skeletons, scarecrows, lighted up pumpkins, costumes of everything from witches, to Harry Potter and Princesses, to loot bags, make up, and tons of sweets, candy and give aways. The prices range for any income group to be able to slurge on that one day...a day that the kids look forward to as much as Christmas or their birthday!
History says that Halloween actually started from the Celtic days, when after the harvest they would take stock of their animals and see how much meat they had to see them through the winter. At times, the killing of these animals resulted in sickness or diseased crops. This fine line between the alive and dead......somewhere crossed into Halloween. A night where people started a tradition of bonfires with scary stories, visits to haunted homes, and decorating the home or lawn with a pumpkin or Jack-o-lantern.
Halloween is celebrated on Ocober the 31st and on this day, especially children, dress up in whatever costume they like, and have parties in schools as well as community centers etc. In the evening, once its dark, children walk door to door with their costumes on, and say, 'trick or treat', and the person in the house will give the children some candy. Some people give baked goods, candy apples or even stickers and small toys.
Adults and teenagers have dress up or costume parties to celebrate Halloween and it is generally a day of crazy fun!!
My son has decided to be Harry Potter, and my daughter wants to be Hannah Montana. We picked up the blonde wig yesterday, and I have to say that she looks nothing like Hannah Montana and its hard to say what or who she looks like.
Will write more about this after Halloween and take some pictures too.
Yesterday we went to the Queens Quay in Toronto. If you are in Canada and have not taken a walk there.....do it today. It was an amazing experience, just walking along the deck, with all the ferry's and boats rocking in the water and the sounds of the waves hitting the rocks surrounding the atmosphere. There was a Chinese man playing a stringed instrument, and it just sounded so beautiful in the background. There was also a guy, who called himself the Fire Guy, who did tricks with whatelse, fire!
We took a short ferry ride and saw a lot of people with different kinds of boats out, enjoying the afternoon.
There are many eateries here, things to do like music shows to watch and street performances that pop out in front of you as you walk.
It cost us 12 dollars to park the car for two hours. You need at least two to three hours minimum to enjoy what the Queens Quay has to offer. They also have child friendly activities in the main pier building.
We saw many people riding their bikes, roller blading, taking buses and trams and also just walking with thier pets.
Enjoy the pictures...........and will catch up with you later.
Love to hear your comments or questions...........keep them coming.
Oh and from my earlier post, Jim Carrey was the right answer for my question.........and the only person to answer right on that one was Anitha Bennett from Chennai!!
Bye for now........
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